Lush electronic soundscaping
with soaring, ethereal female vocals, emotive beats and colourful
world elements. Delerium's unique style blossoms once again
here in full opulent glory - the undulating synth arrangements,
multi-layered and constantly varying are at their richest;
strings, pianos and all manner of the global waves and samples
fill the air with an exotic scent, the percussive structures
inhabit that ambiguous twilight space somewhere between live
and digital, additional organic ethnic loops deftly entwined.
Deep flutes and eastern wires frequently thicken the atmosphere
and spacious interludes allow the synths plenty of room to
evolve and shine - cycling, morphing arpeggios, doleful drones,
beautiful shifting melodies. Many of the songs are wordless
or sultry, moody affairs that work in smooth conjunction with
the sumptuous programming, quirky, catchy themes that hit
angelic highs and wistful lows brimming with emotion.

MOOD

Exotic
musical montages where each track tells a story - unhurried
introductions of sweeping strings or brooding ambience unfurl
into shady, downtempo dreamscapes of sensual delight. Nuages
Du Monde is an album of passion and drama - a series of crepuscular
nocturnes for the dreamer in each of us.

ARTWORK

The
front cover image maintains the Delerium knack for matching
image to musical vision - a girl reclines on a bed of cloud,
butterflies flickering about her, one alighting on her finger
- gondolas in the distance skirt an island of ornate architecture.
Everything is presented in muted tones giving an impression
of age - only the butterflies bright and vivid. The feeling
of decadent opulence is maintained throughout the booklet
- gold leaf (literally), floral scrollwork and embossed textures
layer most pages in heavy tones. There are portraits of all
the singers (with the notable exception of choirboy Greg Froese)
and a montaged image of Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber. The package
comes in a jewel case this time, but Carylann Loeppky's delightful
artwork still makes this feel like something special to hold
and browse.

OVERALL

Delerium
are on top form with this latest release delivering here something
of the darkness and romance that first appeared on Semantic
Spaces, explored more fully on Karma, however, the development
of the Delerium sound into something lighter and more widely
accessible through Poem and Chimera is also evident. More
lightweight than Karma, more consistent and passionate than
Chimera - this is a strong album that consolidates all that
Delerium has thus far achieved. There are some Instrumentals,
some songs and some pieces somewhere in between where voices
are employed similarly to instruments. Kristy Thirsk, Kirsty
Hawkshaw, Jael, Zoe Johnston, The Mediaeval Babes and Isabel
Bayrakdarian provide the heavenly tones with just the right
amount of blissful melancholy.

WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM

It
seems that Bill and co. have listened to the fans and produced
a CD that should please the greatest number. I defy any Delerium
fan not to be content with this offering. If you don't know
Delerium - this is music for fans of beat-driven electronica
featuring the glories of the female voice.

MORPHEUS
MUSIC REVIEWS

------Rena
Jones - Driftwood

STYLE

Digital beats and shimmering
electronica inventively woven into downtempo ambient pieces
with expertly played cello, violin and clarinet threaded through
the heart of most tracks. Rena Jones overlays tinkling, bubbling
arps and synth patterns upon smooth strings and pads producing
electronic canvases that alternate between bejewelled multifaceted
sparkles and spacious atmospheric soundscapes. Her percussion
arrangements are fragile, irregular, shifting structures that
are not simply beats for the music; they are integral aspects
of the overall sound - deeply stitched into the mix. Where
the sounds of cello, violin or clarinet are employed - the
approach is not that of classical instrument with synthetic
backdrop - rather equal attention is given to both, Jones
obviously enjoying the aspects of programming as much as those
of passionate virtuoso performance.

MOOD

'Driftwood’
has a clean, crystalline sound - icy, airy - delicate and
beautiful. The album has a cutting edge fluidity, technologically
bang up to date, yet it never falls into the trap of being
mechanical. The music here is eminently human and brims
with elegant, feminine sensitivity.

ARTWORK

The
artwork features fractal-like spirals and swirls. On the front
cover these are comprised of intertwining scrolls of driftwood,
leaves and blossom gracefully curling off into pointed tips.
The rear cover picks up just the leaves and blossom - again
spiralling lazily, this time forming a frame for the track
list. When the artwork is unfolded into its full three panels
the full glory of the driftwood structure can be seen - now
solid and bold. Within is a more detailed track list with
full credits, thanks and a dedication. Also an attractive
poetic composition attributed to ~Phidelity~.

OVERALL

Driftwood
(Rena Jones third full length solo release) is a delicate
album of beautiful music - it could fall loosely into the
chillout or ambient genres, but this CD seems to transcend
such categorisation with an individuality and style that is
quite unique. There is evidence of the Native State house
sound, if you're familiar with other releases from the label,
this CD will have a pleasing familiarity for you. Promotional
material aptly points out that "Rena Jones is an anomaly
in modern electronic music. She writes, performs, produces,
programs, and plays virtuosic strings all by herself. In a
music scene dominated by men, she has proven herself to be
more capable and more original than her contemporaries. Her
work is sophisticated, delicate, touching, and personal".
Rena has previously appeared on a number of compilation albums
and also works as a part of a number of collaborative projects
including String Theories with Evan Bluetech (which promises
an album sometime next year).

WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM

Native
State fans will love this album - Rena continues to push back
the boundaries of modern music whilst maintaining the roots
of the label. Driftwood is a must for anyone into innovative
chillout or percussive ambient - blending classical aesthetics
with digital wizardry and a keen ear for detail.

MORPHEUS
MUSIC REVIEWS

------Sola
Translatio - Enigma

MUSIC

Ambient environments thick with
obscurity and ambiguity. The album opens with muted shufflings
and reverberating disturbances - a sonic wind rising and falling
in the background. Some sounds have a human origin indicative
of mysterious presences. Much of the sound here is suggestive
of 'found sound' as though harvested from sonorous spaces
and unmusical activities. Plucked notes and droning tonal
loops sometimes rise to the fore rolling in layers, the noise
of whirling tubes ghostly, fluctuating, bells and flutes hang
in the air. In many places there is a dense sonic soup where
undulating tonalities curl and revolve - mysterious effects
drifting past the ear - aspects of harmony appearing incidental.
Field recordings are woven into the sound, murmuring voices
birds and water spectral elements in this land of enigmatic
peculiarity.

ARTWORK

Artwork
consists primarily of classical imagery featuring mazes and
labyrinths - the pack is fronted by a painting where knights
battle centaurs, a particular dual taking place right at the
centre of a circular maze structure - two seated female figues
holding the foreground.. The rear cover contains a brown tinted
medieval cityscape with another round design in the middle.
Inside is the track list along with credits and 'instruments'
used for the project. Artwork is credited to Hic Sunt Leones
(here there be lions).

OVERALL

Enigma
is the third collaborative CD by Opium and Alio Die. Here
the duo present mystifying a series of eight "imaginary
landscapes" where beats are totally absent and musical
structure is loose and meandering. The atmospheres are frequently
disquieting, haunting and full of subtle perplexity. Acoustic
and organic sounds are embedded deep within hazy drone textures,
the artists employing drones and loops, zither, flutes bells
and field recordings with Opium focusing on programming and
wave editings. It must be said though that the sounds produced
by the items listed are not necessarily those you might expect,
these guys are not into dainty melodies and sweet tunes.

MORPHEUS
MUSIC REVIEWS

------Between
Interval - Autumn Continent

MUSIC

Synthetic ambient music; mainly
beatless with some sequencer patterns in places for rhythm.
A number of the tracks on Autumn Continent are cloudy masses
of sound where atonal washes combine with sweeping drones
to dramatic effect. Rumbling bottom end layers underlie smoother
oceanic swells and billowing mists above - occasionally a
piano line rises out of the fog or a bass pulse throbs in
the twilight. 'Early Life Remainings' sees a percussive pattern
slowly roll in with accompanying twinkling synthesiser cycles
- this delicate track ends with a beautiful wind down into
pensive lightness. A number of pieces tend to rise and fall
in ponderous waves and swells of intensity and colour - sometimes
sombre and atmospheric, at times wistful and weighted with
nostalgia - an autumnal sense of loss, hints of early frost.

ARTWORK

An
attractive package built appropriately around leaf shapes
and autumnal hues. The front cover featuring stalks points
and negative spaces strikingly toned from fiery yellow/orange
through icy turquoise into nocturnal indigo and black. The
reverse image is muted so that the tracklist might shine -
tastefully slanted letters sitting atop track times. Within
the booklet russet browns blurred with camera motion support
credits and thanks and the Between Interval website address.

OVERALL

This
is the third full solo album from Stefan Jönsson in
ambient mood - he also produces music under the names Sublunar
for trance, Monodrive mainly for progressive house and Section
9 for tech-trance/house. Between Interval has also appeared
recently on the excellent Ultimae compilations Oxycanta
and Albedo. Autumn Continent is released on Spotted Peccary
Records. Promotional material explains that the album was
"inspired by the chilly autumn and winter in northern
Europe. Autumn Continent takes you to vast frosted landscapes,
through colourful autumn forests under bleak skies, revealing
dark ocean depths far below the newly frozen surface and
shows you hidden locations long forgotten". There is
no doubt here that Stefan achieves these sonic images to
powerful effect.

MORPHEUS
MUSIC REVIEWS

------Kiss
& Fly

STYLE

Moody trip hop and cinematic
electronica with female vocals. Kiss & Fly combine dramatic
piano lines and shadowy atmospherics to produce a brooding
sound canvas that is driven into motion by a series of unhurried
sinewy downtempo beats. At times the sound is orchestral and
one of sweeping grandeur at others a solo piano carries the
thread. A variety of voices haunt these appealing shadows
- a spoken male voice appears on one track, but the majority
of the singers are women. Kiss & Fly have a pleasingly
professional sound - the vocals are strong and the arrangements
ambitious, for a debut EP this is powerful product.

MOOD

Like
the thunder clouds on the cover and on band's the website,
Kiss & Fly work within a mood of lush gloom - emotive,
sensual vocals providing the light shafting through the atmosphere.
The broad soaring nature of the sound creates a sense of classic
romanticism, the smooth production leaving a polished surface
and a sense of airy space.

ARTWORK

The
EP comes packed in a glossy card with a deep blue skyscape
on front and back. On the front a jagged streak of lightening
holds the attention heading earthward from the band's logo.
Rear cover information provides a tracklist with times included,
simple credits and web site details.

OVERALL

Kiss
& Fly according to promotional material "is an open
musical project, fruit of the collaboration between Tristan
(author/composer) and varied artists, authors, singers, joint
together to create skin deep emotional music. The meeting
point of refined melancholic trip-hop/pop and subtle soundtrack
ambiance". This is not Tristan's first venture into musical
release - in 2001 he released an album under the name Le Triste
Sire, a second album followed in 2003. These CDs chart the
artist's development of neo-classical, soundtrack music into
a more electronic sound using synthetic sources and loops.
Singers Sandy and Mylene came to the project in 2005 and Kiss
& Fly finally emerged.

WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM

This
is a CD for fans of melancholy female vocal music - it might
well appeal to Delerium, Balligomingo fans as well as to trip
hop audiences that like their sound rich and cinematic.

Ambient experimental sounds
combining the 'Francesco' voices with improvisational programming
from Opium. Francesco Paladino here provides vocalisations
that range from moans, whines and nasal tones through to
various mutterings and mournings. Teo Zini or Opium surrounds
these utterances with layers of ambient electronic texture
and processed 'wave editings'. The resultant sound is a
mysterious organic sound installation that is suggestive
of various dreamstates - jangling bells, buzzing flies,
birds, water droplets and hypnotic drones hang in the aural
air - ambiguous, evocative and unsettling. Titles add to
the dreamy mood of the music - 'grasswall painted green',
'me, the sky sleeping', 'sunrise overflow'.

ARTWORK

Sharp
photography focuses on earth hues and textural areas - stacked
rocks on the front cover, a pool in a rocky indentation on
the reverse. Everything is suitably shady with abundant blacks.
Within the booklet are portraits of the artists and a few
words from each to present their individual contributions
to the project. Web site addresses are included along with
thanks and kisses.

OVERALL

Paladino
recently collaborated with Alio Die on the album 'Angel's
Fly Souvenir' and then as a new musical project teamed up
with Opium to form 'Nosesoul'. The promotional material
from Teo Zini explains that the "Nosesoul project is
pure improvisation - my sessions have been improvised and
directly mixed with Francesco's voices. These sounds are
pure breaths, pure prayers, pure mourns and pure pleasures
to me". The album is released on the Hic Sunt Leones
label and can be found on the Alio Die website.

MORPHEUS
MUSIC REVIEWS

------Francesco
Paladino & Sean Breadin - Mvsica Fivto

MUSIC

Experimental and improvised
folky ambience using the vocalisations from Nosesoul and
here combining these with improvisational instrumentation
from Sean Breadin. Breadin mixed and processed the original
sounds and integrated them into a new context to reveal
a very different result from Nosesoul. Acoustic strains
from such sources as pocket corner, crwth, viola, gusle,
voice, bendhir and bells waft and crawl around the truly
peculiar sounds produced by Paladino. Flights up and down
the scales, meanderings through musical motifs, wavering
sonic explorations - a ceremonial tone and respectful juxtaposition.

ARTWORK

Photomontaged
imagery combines a solarised eye staring purple, indigo from
a yellow-brown backdrop overlaid with lettering and mirrored
cartography. A tasteful black border at top and bottom binds
the picture running across to the reverse of the booklet where
a negative version of the cover appears in monochrome brown.
The rear of the jewelcase presents no text apart from HIC
SUNT LEONES and the Alio Die website address. Within we find
the track list and timings along with credits and sound sources.

OVERALL

The
promotional material for this album explains that this music
was "elaborated from the same basic 'voices' for "NoseSoul"
made by Paladino, and then mixed, processed and integrated
by Breadin with totally acoustic improvisations with pocket
corner, crwth, viola, gusle, voice, bendhir". The sound
here is more acoustic than Nosesoul - suggestive of a live
performance - a duet of pure exploration and imagination.
This is music that strays very far from the mainstream into
territories that test the very boundaries of music.